Apparatus for treating yarn with liquids



AN 2,694,308 US FOR TREATING YARN WITH LIQUIDS Nov. 16, 1954 KULJIAN 2,694,308

APPARATUS FOR TREATING YARN WITH LIQUIDS Filed May '7, 1951 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 @wnff- INVENTOR.

H. A. KULJIAN APPARATUS FOR TREATING YARN WITH LIQUIDS Nov. 16, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed May 7, 1951 2,694,308 Patented Nov. 16, 1954 APPARATUS FOR TREATING YARN WITH LIQUIDS Harry A. Kuljian, Merion, Pa.

Application May 7, 1951, Serial No. 224,920 1 Claim. (CL 68-205) In the manufacture, or in the processing, of synthetic 1t;

In order to make sure that the various liquids needed are present in sufficient quantities, and because it is difiicult, if not impossible to gauge the liquid requirements exactly, it is the practice to supply the various liquids in relatively excessive amounts. But, because at least some of the liquids used are expensive, because the presence of liquids in excessive quantities will resuit in intermingling of the various liquids delivered to adjacent zones on the roll with obviously undesirable consequences, and because the presence of an excessive quantity of one re-agent or another may, of itself,

produce undesired results, it is desirable to remove excess liquids so as to regulate the quantities of the various liquids which are allowed to remain on the filament or on the rolls during movement of the filament through successive zones along such roll. It is also desirable that the excess liquids be removed, as far as possible, in a segregated manner so as to facilitate reclamation and reconcentration of the various liquids.

To these ends, I have provided an improved, combined scraping or wiping and segregating device whereby excess liquids can be removed, in a segregated manner, from the surface of the roll to which the liquids arlel supplied and from the surface of at least one adjacent ro In practice, it is necessary to start rotating the rolls before the filament is wound about the feed end of the reel. Therefore, even though the treating liquids are being supplied to one of the rolls, the remaining rolls will run dry until the thread helix formed about the reel begins to carry liquid from the roll to which the liquids are supplied to the other rolls of the reel. Rotation of a dry roll against a wiper will result in wear on both the roll and the wiper. In actual installations, a plurality of reels will be driven by a single prime mover and, since all the reels can not be threaded at the same time, some of the reels will run dry for longer or shorter intervals.

It is therefore the obiect of this invention to produce an improved reel in which the rolls which are provided with wipers are almost immediately wetted and lubricated whereby the wear which would result from the rolls running dry against their wipers is greatly reduced or entirely eliminated.

A further object is to accomplish the foregoing object without having to apply treating liquids to all rolls which are provided with wipers and without in any willy interfering with the function of the wipers themse ves.

These and other objects are attained by my invention as set forth in the following specification and as shown in the accompanying drawings in Which Fig. l is a fragmentary and diagrammatic side elevational View of an improved reel embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-2 on Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a top plan view looking in the direction of line 3-3 on Fig. 2, everything being omitted except the wipers which act on the uppermost two rolls.

Fig. 4 is a greatly enlarged sectional view on line 4--4 on Fig. 3 better to show details of construction,

Fig. 5 is side elevational View of a key-like member used for keeping the wipers in effective position.

Fig. 6 is a side elevational view of the concave side of the right hand wiper as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 7 is a side elevational view of the convex side of this wiper.

Fig. 8 is a side elevational view of the convex side of the left hand Wiper as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 9 is a side elevational view of the concave side of this wiper.

The reel illustrated includes a number of rolls 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 which are arranged in the form of a circle around a fixed center post 18. The rolls are rotated about their individual axes by means of gears, not shown, which are driven by means of a motor M. The axes of the rolls are skewed with reference to the axis of the post 18 so that, when a thread 29 is wound about one end of the reel, it will move longitudinally of the reel, in the form of a helix circumscribing all of the rolls.

As the thread moves axially of the reel, it is supplied with various liquids calculated to complete the regeneration of a nascent synthetic thread and/or to impart the desired finish to the thread. The liquids referred to are delivered from various nozzles N which are spaced to correspond to spaced treating zones along the reel. The nozzles are in alignment with one of the upper rolls, such as roll 10 and, in order .to insure adequate treatment of the thread, the-liquids are initially supplied in excessive quantities. But "in order to remove the excess quantities of the various liquids separately for reclamation, in order to guard against the continued presence of excess quantities of liquids which may adversely affect the processing of the thread, and in order to facilitate the drying of the thread, I provide wipers or scrapers for removing excess liquids from roll 10, onto which the liquids are directly supplied, and from at least adjacent roll 17 to which relatively large quantities of liquids are carried by movement of the thread as indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2.

The wipers shown are disclosed and claimed in my patent No. 2,634,449 of April 14, 1953 and entitled Thread Manufacturing Apparatus. In view of this, it is now necessary to describe only so much of the structure of the wipers as is required for a proper understanding of the present invention.

As will be best seen from Figs. 4, 6 and 9, the wipers, respectively, include elongated, transversely curved shells 22 and 23, on the concave side of each of which are horizontal strips 24 and 25 and a number of spaced, vertical strips 26. The strips 24 and 25 serve to remove excess liquids from the surfaces of rolls 10 and 17 and the vertical strips 26 serve to minimize the flow of liquids from the portions of the rolls between such strips to adjacent portions. The excess liquids thus removed are discharged through Openings 28 in shell 22 and through openings 30 in shell 23. Because rolls 10 and 17 rotate in the direction of the arrows in Fig. 4, the openings 28 are above horizontal strip 24 and openings 30 are below strip 25.

The wipers are held in position by means of the member 32, shown in Fig. 5. This member is provided with upper and lower recess 34 which are adapted to engage upper and lower elongated springs 38 which extend longitudinally of the convex sides of shells 22 and 23. The springs are supported by spaced lugs 40. As will be seen from Fig. 4, thespace between the inner peripheries of spring 38 is less than the width of the member 32 measured along broken line 42 which connects the inner peripheries of recesses 34. Therefore, when the member 32 is in the position of Fig. 2, with the springs 38 in recess 34, the springs will be loaded and will exert a yielding pressure against the shells 22 and 23 to cause the strips 24 and 25 and the strips 26 to engage the rolls 10 and 17 with yielding pressure.

With the structure above described, if liquid is supplied to roll 10 and if the rolls are rotated in the absence of a thread on the reel, the roll 17, which also has a wiper, will run dry. Also, the reel must rotate before and during the winding of a thread thereon and therefore a progressively decreasing portion of roll 17 will run dry. The first situation results in overall wear of roll 17 (due to scraping against strip 25) and the second situation results in progressively greater wear of roll 17 as the discharge end of the reel is approached. In practice, when many reels are driven as a unit, quite some time will elapse before threads are completely wound about all of the reels and it is sometimes necessary, for some reason or other, to run the reels, for longer or shorter intervals, without any threads.

To overcome this ditficulty, I provide a selected number of openings 28 with spouts 44 and I provide some of the corresponding openings 30 in shell 23 with scoops 46,

which underlap spouts 44 as best shown in Fig. 4. By

this arrangement, liquids scraped 01f roll 10 by strip 24 will be discharged, by spouts 44 into scoops 46 and, therefore, roll 17 will be immediately wetted and, hence, lubricated, even in the absence of a thread on the reel.

The lubrication of roll 17 thus guards against dry running and consequent wear on this roll and it improves the lacing of the thread, or the formation of a helix about the reel. Thus, if roll 17 is dry when the thread first reaches it after leaving roll 10, it might adversely affect the uniform spacing of the convolutions of the helix and effective tension or friction with which the thread convolutions engage the reel. The liquids scraped off from roll 17 are discharged through spouts 48, which communicate with openings 30. In other words, when liquids are first poured on roll 10, some of the liquids scraped oif this roll are delivered through openings 28, spouts 44, scoops 46 and openings 30, to the concave surface of shell 23 so that, by splashing, or by surface tension of the liquids, roll 17 will be wetted in advance of the arrival of the wet thread thereon. On the other hand, when the reel is in operation and the thread carries a large amount of liquid onto roll 17, the excess liquid scraped by strip 44 will pass through openings 30 and out through the lower, downwardly sloping spouts 48. As will be seen from Fig. 3, scoops 46 are used only at intervals and that where they are not used, spouts 48, alone, communicate with openings 30. This is clearly shown in Fig. 8. Except for the addition of the scoops 46, the present structure is the same as that shown in my Patent 2,634,449 aforesaid.

What I claim is:

A combined wiper and lubricator mechanism for use on a thread storing and advancing reel of the type which includes at least two elongated rolls about which the thread is adapted to travel and means for applying treating liquids to the thread as it moves over one of said rolls, said mechanism including a first shell adapted to be placed adjacent the roll to which the liquids are supplied, a scraper carried by said first shell for removing excess quantities of said liquids from the surface of said roll, there being openings in said first shell through which the liquids removed from said roll are discharged, spouts leading from said openings, a second shell adapted to be placed adjacent the other of said rolls, there being openings in said second shell, and scoops carried by said second shell and leading from the openings therein to said spouts for receiving the liquids discharged through thiel openings in said first shell to wet the other of said ro 5.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Number D Fry Sept. 

